At Least Eight Teams To Carry Overage Penalty Into 2026-27
The NHL adds contract performance bonuses to the salary cap hit of each team at the end of the season. Any price over the salary cap is carried over to the team’s cap hit in the following season. Performance bonuses are broken up into two categories. A-level bonuses are paid out for reaching set numbers of goals, assists, points, plus-minus, or time on ice per-game. End-of-season accolades, such as an All-Star or All-Team nomination, are also A-level bonuses. B-level bonuses are worth up to $2MM and can include leaderboard rankings, minimum stats reached, or award wins. More details about performance bonuses can be found on PuckPedia.
At least NHL teams will carry an overage penalty into the 2026-27 season per PuckPedia. That number is down from 11 in the 2025-26 season and 15, an NHL record, in the 2024-25 season. This year’s list includes:
New York Islanders: $3.5MM
The Islanders paid out every last bit of rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer‘s potential $3.5MM performance bonus. He was awarded $1MM for his per-game scoring and ice time, then earned an additional $2.5MM by finishing in the top-10 of defensemen scoring. The Islanders utilized long-term injured reserve to exceed the salary cap at the end of the season. That will leave all of Schaefer’s performance bonus as overage headed into next season.
Colorado Avalanche: $2.29MM
Colorado lands an overage penalty thanks to Brent Burns‘ performance on an age-35+ contract. Burns had a potential for $4MM in performance bonuses on his deal and earned $3MM of that by playing in 10 games this season. Colorado utilized LTIR earlier in the year but finished the season with a little more than $700K in cap space. That space will help offset the cost of Burns’ bonuses just a bit, though Colorado will still carry a penalty into 2026-27.
Dallas Stars: $2.08-$3.08MM
The Dallas Stars paid out $80K in bonus to Justin Hryckowian for reaching 70 games this season. Captain Jamie Benn also earned $2MM of a potential $3MM in bonuses for playing in 50 games. That includes appearing in the season finale, which netted him $500K on its own. Benn has the potential to earn an additional $1MM in bonus – $500K each if Dallas wins the Western Conference Finals and Stanley Cup. That will sit the Stars with just over $2MM in overage currently and the potential for $3MM if they win it all.
Montreal Canadiens: $1.93-2.07MM
The Montreal Canadiens finished the year with less than $50K in cap space, in part thanks to their mid-season acquisition of Phillip Danault. Rookie Ivan Demidov landed $1MM in bonuses, of a potential $2MM, for his per-game scoring and ice time totals. Oliver Kapanen also earned $250K in bonuses for his per-game totals. He could earn an additional $137.5K if he is named to the NHL All-Rookie Team – a feat that seems unlikely with rookie forwards like Demidov, Beckett Sennecke, Benjamin Kindel, and Jimmy Snuggerud also in the running. Montreal also paid out $400K in bonuses to star defenseman Lane Hutson for a variety of reasons and $80K to rookie goalie Jacob Fowler for reaching 10 games. They will sit just shy of $2MM in overage penalty and could crest that mark if Kapanen earns all-team honors.
Ottawa Senators: $0-1.41MM
The Ottawa Senators will have to sign some big checks if they go on a playoff run. They have already paid out $1MM to Claude Giroux, and $750K to Lars Eller, for playing in 60 games and reaching the postseason. Giroux will earn an additional $500K if Ottawa wins in the first round – a cost that would be absorbed by their end-of-year cap space. But Giroux and Eller will also be eligible for $250K in bonuses if Ottawa wins the second round, and Giroux can net an additional $500K for wins in each of the Eastern Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals. That will leave Ottawa with four potential outcomes: no overage penalty, $414K in overage penalty (third-round loss), $914K in overage penalty (Stanley Cup Final loss), or $1.414MM in overage penalty (Stanley Cup win).
New Jersey Devils: $1.25MM
The Devils paid out two bonuses that pushed them into the red. Young defenseman Simon Nemec earned $750K in bonuses for his scoring, plus-minus, and ice time per-game totals. Winger Evgenii Dadonov landed $500K for scoring at least one point, $250K for playing in 10 games, and an additional $250K for reaching 20 games. He did not play in his 20th game of the season until March 29th, earning the 37 year old a late-season chip. Now, the Devils will carry more than $1MM in overage penalty into next season.
San Jose Sharks: $918.7K
The San Jose Sharks finished the year with $4.8MM in cap space but still land on the list of overage penalties. Much of that is thanks to their young stars. Macklin Celebrini earned every bit of his $3.5MM in potential bonuses with his franchise record-setting scoring. Will Smith earned $1MM, and William Eklund earned $450K, in bonuses for their scoring and ice time per-game. Those marks also earned Sam Dickinson $250K and Collin Graf reached his contract cap of $500K in bonuses. That amounts to $5.425MM, pushing the Sharks into the red for next season.
Edmonton Oilers: $250K
The Edmonton Oilers will face their second-straight season with $250K in overage penalty next year. This time, it is a result of rookie Matthew Savoie, who earned $250K with his ice time per-game. Edmonton finished the year utilizing LTIR to exceed the salary cap.
Florida Panthers: $150K
Defenseman Jeff Petry earned $150K in bonuses for reaching 50 games played with the Florida Panthers before the Trade Deadline. He earned an additional $60K for reaching 60 games, though that bonus came after his trade to the Minnesota Wild.
Photo courtesy of Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Panthers Reassign Six To AHL
The injury-plagued Panthers sent significant reinforcements back to their AHL affiliate in Charlotte last night after their season came to an end with an 8-1 win over the Red Wings on Wednesday. Per the AHL’s transactions log, the Cats reassigned forward Wilmer Skoog and defensemen Marek Alscher, Michael Benning, Tobias Björnfot, Mikulas Hovorka, and Ludvig Jansson to the Checkers as they prep for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Most of these names has only been summoned in the last few days as even more injuries piled up in Sunrise, although Benning and Björnfot were around for longer. The former potted his first two career NHL goals against Detroit en route to being named the first star of the game in his season finale.
In a Panthers pool light on prospects, Benning is among the more intriguing. A fourth-round pick in 2020, he was a dominant offensive threat over three years at the University of Denver. He hasn’t quite had the point output expected of him since turning pro, meaning he didn’t get an NHL look until late in his third season in the organization. Recalled back on March 12 in the wake of an Uvis Balinskis injury, Benning played in 18 straight to end the season and recorded a 2-4–6 scoring line with a -4 rating.
Benning, 24, may have done enough to work himself into the conversation for a roster spot in the fall if the high-spending Panthers need somebody cheap. All six of their regulars on the blue line when healthy are signed through next year, plus likely #7 Donovan Sebrango is under team control as a restricted free agent, so the math isn’t in his favor. His underlying numbers over the last few weeks were strong enough to cement him as one of the Cats’ primary recall options, though.
While he only laid the body four times (the 5’9″ righty will never be mistaken for an imposing defensive threat), Florida controlled 52.1% of shot attempts and 49.4% of expected goals with him on the ice at even strength. He surprisingly didn’t receive a very long look on the power play, only averaging 16:54 of ice time per game in total, but didn’t receive sheltered deployment in those conservative minutes.
Björnfot, a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, could also be retained with a qualifying offer to give the Cats a more experienced recall option to lean on. The former Kings first-rounder is now 25 years old with 153 games of NHL experience, 19 of which came this season. That was his highest workload since appearing in a career-high 70 games with L.A. in the 2021-22 campaign.
A good skater with some positioning lapses, the defensive-minded Björnfot recorded four points, a +1 rating, 23 blocks, and 14 hits for the Cats this year while skating 14:11 per night. His possession impacts weren’t great – a relative Corsi share of -2.6% at even strength and an expected goals share of 43.9% – so Florida may want to think twice about giving him another look down the line over someone like Benning. Björnfot also carries a tad more excess in his role as a lefty – just like five of Florida’s seven projected regulars heading into next season.
The rest of the list only just made their NHL debuts this month as Florida’s entire defense corps and about half its forward group ended up on the injured list by the time Game 82 rolled around. Skoog, 26, is a pending RFA after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Boston College in 2023.
Amid a strong AHL showing this season that’s seen him produce 18 goals and 37 points in 59 games for Charlotte, the Swedish forward didn’t look out of place on a line with Jesper Boqvist and Cole Schwindt while handling a couple of special teams shifts as well. He saw 15:01 of average ice time across three nights with a pair of assists, four shots on goal, five blocks, and two hits. That trio of Skoog, Boqvist, and Schwindt also controlled an excellent 70.6% of expected goals in the two games they were matched together, per MoneyPuck.
Alscher was a third-round choice in 2022 but is Florida’s top defense prospect if you deem Benning too old to qualify, as Scott Wheeler of The Athletic writes. The 22-year-old is tracking nicely toward a career as a potential press-box/bottom pairing piece with a standout defensive performance as a second-year pro in Charlotte, logging 11 points and a +18 rating in 51 games. The Czech lefty brings great size at 6’3″ and 205 lbs and got a real look over the last few games, posting three assists, and a +4 rating, and six blocks in four outings while seeing over 20 minutes per night.
The even larger Hovorka (6’6″, 229 lbs) didn’t quite have the same impact. A 24-year-old undrafted free agent pickup from Czechia’s HC Motor Ceske Budejovice in 2024, he’s had success akin to Alscher’s in Charlotte this season but is a couple of years ahead of him on the development curve. He’s now a pending RFA whom Florida must decide whether to qualify. Through his first four NHL outings, Hovorka managed an assist with a -1 rating while averaging 14:55 per night. His possession numbers were particularly underwhelming for his sheltered usage, so if he’s retained for next season, it’ll likely be solely as depth for Charlotte.
Jansson, 22, was selected one round after Alscher four years ago. The 6’0″, 181-lb righty is in his first season stateside. He’s been limited to 29 games with Charlotte by injuries, but hasn’t looked bad at all with a 3-7–10 scoring line and a +1 rating. He notched an assist and a +1 rating with five blocks through his first four NHL games this month.
Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov To Play At World Championship
Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season with a knee injury sustained during training camp. On the other side of a losing year for the Panthers, Barkov is finally nearing a return to game action. The star center is expected to play for Team Finland at the 2026 World Championship, Florida head coach Paul Maurice told George Richards of Florida Hockey Now.
Barkov is a cornerstone piece of every lineup he’s apart of. The 30 year old scored 20 goals and 71 points in 67 games of the 2024-25 NHL season. He capped the year off with 22 points in 23 games en route to a 2025 Stanley Cup championship, the same point total and outcome that he reached in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Barkov was the first European captain to lead his team to back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Routine playoff appearances have kept Barkov from appearing in many of Finland’s international tournaments as of late. He captained the Finns at the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off and scored two points in three games. Outside of that, his last appearance with Finland was at the 2017 World Cup, where he posted no scoring in three games. Barkov has played in two World Championships – marked by 16 points in 17 games – and the 2014 Winter Olympics where he had one point in two games.
Each of those international appearances were on the other side of Barkov’s ascension towards superstardom. He has won three Selke Trophies as the league’s best defensive-forward and consistently earned votes for the Hart Memorial Trophy and Lady Byng Memorial Trophy since his 2017 World Cup appearance. Barkov also won the 2025 King Clancy Memorial Trophy, awarded on the basis of leadership and humanitarian contribution. He also became a franchise owner of the Liiga’s Tappara, part of Finland’s top pro league, in 2020. Barkov has grown into a face of Finnish hockey in North America and routinely rivals point-per-game scoring in the NHL.
It is with the weight of a missed NHL season – and a missed Olympic Games – that Barkov will now enter the 2026 World Championship. He will be among the Finns’ biggest scoring threats and could challenge the most ice time on the team each game. Finland will also lean on Florida’s Anton Lundell and Seattle Kraken winger Kaapo Kakko to bolster their lineup, with much of the country’s top NHL talent headed towards the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Either way, Barkov’s return will be far more than the addition of one more player. It will also give the reigning Cup captain a chance to get back to full speed before the 2026-27 campaign is underway.
Panthers Place Nolan Foote, Noah Gregor On Waivers
The Panthers placed forwards Nolan Foote and Noah Gregor on waivers Thursday, per PuckPedia. The move will allow them to be assigned to AHL Charlotte for the Calder Cup Playoffs after they presumably clear tomorrow. Both required waivers for reassignment because they’d each played at least 10 NHL games since they cleared last.
Foote, 25, was a first-round pick back by the Lightning in 2019 but has ended up with their cross-state rivals after failing to ever lock down a full-time NHL role. He was traded to the Devils in the 2020 Blake Coleman swap. He ended up appearing in 30 games over five consecutive seasons for New Jersey but never hit double-digit appearances in any one campaign. That led New Jersey to non-tender him last summer, and he subsequently landed a two-way deal with Florida.
He was never really expected to compete for an NHL job, and for the first several months of the season, he was solely the AHL depth they brought him in to be. In 54 games for Charlotte, he had 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points. A strong top-nine AHL piece for several years now, with good size at 6’3″ and 196 lbs, Florida’s rash of injuries forced him up onto the NHL roster last month.
Foote ended up skating in a career-high 12 games for the Cats over the last few weeks of the season, notching a goal with a -4 rating while averaging 10:48 per night. He offered up some physicality with 27 hits, but his impacts outside of that were limited. Florida controlled 50.2% of shot attempts but just 43.3% of expected goals when he was on the ice at even strength.
Since Foote has played under 80 NHL games with three years of professional experience and is now at the age-25 cutoff, he’s eligible for Group VI unrestricted free agency this summer. Florida will not be able to retain his rights with a qualifying offer and will instead need to extend him before July 1 if they’re interested in keeping him away from the open market.
As for Gregor, the 27-year-old vet had a slightly more expanded role in Florida this season, again due to injuries ahead of him on the depth chart. He was brought in for training camp on a professional tryout before ultimately signing a two-way deal in the wake of injuries to Aleksander Barkov, Tomáš Nosek, and Matthew Tkachuk in the early going.
As has been the case for the last couple of years, the speedy winger has struggled to generate a strong two-way impact. He did tickle the twine four times in 37 outings for Florida, adding five assists for nine points, but did so with a -10 rating while averaging a career-low 9:34 of ice time per game. He’s never been much of a finisher – in fact, he’s never had a 10% shooting rate in all seven of his NHL seasons. He’s also not throwing the body as much as he used to and had poor possession impacts across the board in 2025-26.
Gregor will be a UFA this summer for the fourth year in a row. He was on a three-year non-tender streak but is now old enough to be a “real” UFA. At this rate, his hopes of landing a one-way deal this summer have likely dried up. Even in Charlotte, he hasn’t been overly impressive with an 11-6–17 scoring line in 25 outings.
Panthers’ Tomas Nosek Suffers Broken Leg
The end of the season has brought no relief to the Florida Panthers’ injury woes. Winger Tomas Nosek sustained a broken leg in Sunday’s win over the New York Rangers, head coach Paul Maurice told Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson. Nosek did not play the final three minutes of the game. It is not clear exactly when he suffered the fracture but Nosek specified that the leg he broke is not the same one that he underwent knee surgery on earlier in the season.
Nosek missed the first 60 games of the season with a knee injury sustained during the off-season. He has scored four points and a minus-eight in 21 games on the year, before sustaining another injury in the second-to-last game of Florida’s season.
This injury continues a long run of misfortune for Nosek. He missed the first month of the 2024-25 season with an upper-body injury and ultimately played only 59 games for the eventual Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers. Nosek scored nine points in those games, and three more in 16 playoff games. He missed multiple chunks of the 2023-24 season with a variety of injuries, including another upper-body injury, and ultimately only played in 36 games that year. Nosek even broke his foot in the latter-half of the 2022-23 season, only totaling 66 regular season games. In full, the 33-year-old winger has only averaged 55 games and 13 points per season dating back to his first full year in the NHL in 2018-19.
This will give Florida another injury to monitor as their off-season gets off to an early start. The Panthers are set to miss the postseason for the first time since 2019, on the heels of three-straight appearances in the Stanley Cup Final. Nosek will join many of the team’s stars in nursing an injury, including Brad Marchand, Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling, and Aaron Ekblad. He faces the added wrinkle of entering free agency this summer and will face the challenge of convincing a team to renew the one-year, league-minimum contract he played on this summer with only 21 games to show for it. Nosek has 120 points in 514 career games in the NHL.
Florida Panthers Recall Mikulas Hovorka
- According to George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, the Florida Panthers have recalled defenseman Mikulas Hovorka for their final game of the regular season tomorrow night. The 24-year-old blueliner has seen his name on the transaction report a few times this past month, allowing him to skate in three games for the Panthers. Still, the Praha, Czechia native remains looking for his first NHL point, and he’ll seek to change that tomorrow evening against the Detroit Red Wings.
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Florida Panthers Recall Wilmer Skoog
Awaiting an official announcement, the AHL transactions log indicates that the Florida Panthers have recalled some additional forward depth. According to the log, the Panthers have recalled Wilmer Skoog from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.
Skoog, 26, has the opportunity to make his NHL debut on this call-up. Florida signed Skoog from Boston University after he scored 16 goals and 31 points in 37 games for the Terriers in the 2022-23 NCAA season. Since then, it’s been mostly AHL duties.
Although his offense hasn’t taken off, the Stockholm, Sweden native has remained a solid secondary contributor to the Checkers. Through his first three years of professional hockey, Skoog has registered 49 goals and 92 points in 180 AHL contests, averaging just over a point every two games.
Given his developmental trajectory, he’s unlikely to become anything more than a bottom-six forward at the NHL level. Still, given the number of injuries that the Panthers have dealt with this year, they’ll spend the summer acquiring as much depth as they can afford.
Ultimately, that wouldn’t be a bad role for Skoog. Standing at 6’2″, 196lbs, he has the frame many teams would want in a bottom-six forward, and if he can chip in a goal or two along the way, the Panthers will have some value.
If he draws into the lineup tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’ll likely be in a fourth-line role in place of Nolan Foote or Vinnie Hinostroza. Florida recognizes what it has in those two already, so it wouldn’t hurt to give Skoog an opportunity at the highest level of the game.
Seth Jones Sustains Broken Foot
The Panthers will be without yet another defense fixture for the final few games of the season as Seth Jones sustained a broken foot in Tuesday’s shootout loss to the Canadiens, head coach Paul Maurice told reporters today (including the team’s Katie Engleson). Florida recalled two names, Mikulas Hovorka and Ludvig Jansson, yesterday after receiving news that Dmitry Kulikov also wouldn’t return this season, but they’ve done some more roster shuffling this morning. Hovorka has headed back to AHL Charlotte while Marek Alscher comes up in his stead to make his NHL debut, along with Jansson, tonight against the Senators, the team announced.
Jones sustained the foot fracture in the second period on Tuesday but pushed through to finish the outing and play nearly 30 minutes, Maurice said. He had only gotten back in the lineup less than a month ago after sustaining a collarbone injury during the Winter Classic that kept him out for over two months.
Between those two injuries, Jones’ first full season in Florida ends with a 7-25–32 scoring line and a -3 rating in 52 games. He averaged 23:42 per game as Florida’s top minute muncher, but that’s still the lowest workload he’s had in nearly a decade on a much deeper defense group than he had during his days as a Blue Jacket and Blackhawk.
Defensively, it was a year to write home about for Jones. Despite the negative rating, Florida actually outscored opponents 37-35 with Jones on the ice at 5-on-5 while he controlled 51.3% of shot attempts and 52.7% of expected goals. Those numbers are no doubt bumped up by the stronger Florida possession system compared to his previous stop in Chicago, but those are still the best raw totals he’s posted since his last top-10 Norris finish in 2018-19.
For the first time since 2019, the Cats will have a full-length offseason. That will no doubt be beneficial to Jones and their bevy of other injury-plagued talent this season to come back with a clean slate in the fall to attempt a fourth Stanley Cup Final run in five years.
As for the current state of the Panthers’ blue line, it’s hard to imagine it getting any uglier. They are now without Jones, Kulikov (broken finger), Uvis Balinskis (foot fracture), Aaron Ekblad (finger fracture), and Niko Mikkola (knee). None has a chance to return in the four games left on Florida’s schedule. That leaves Gustav Forsling as the last regular standing. He’ll be joined tonight by Michael Benning and his 14 games of NHL experience on the top pairing. Donovan Sebrango is expected to anchor the second pairing with Jansson as he makes his NHL debut, and Tobias Björnfot will skate on the third pairing with a fellow lefty in Alscher.
Alscher, 22, was a third-rounder in 2022. The 6’3″, 205-lb lefty is a defensive specialist and has had a great second season in Charlotte after some rookie growing pains last year, posting 11 points and a strong +18 rating in 51 outings. He likely won’t top out as much more than a third-pairing piece or possibly a complementary second-pairing one with an offensive partner, but he’s played well enough to earn a look.
Devils To Interview Sunny Mehta For GM Vacancy
The Devils have received permission from the Panthers to interview Sunny Mehta, one of their assistant general managers, for New Jersey’s GM vacancy, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports.
Florida also formally granted permission to the Maple Leafs, who Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman linked to Mehta last weekend, to speak with him. It doesn’t appear they’re denying any requests for their assistant staffers to interview elsewhere for better opportunities, something general manager Bill Zito is intent on doing after benefiting from such a practice during his days as an AGM with the Blue Jackets, LeBrun writes.
New Jersey is still in the early stages of its search for Tom Fitzgerald‘s successor. They made the decision to move on from him on Monday. TSN’s Chris Johnston said on “First Up” the following day that, much like the Leafs, they’re looking for an analytically inclined name to take over the chair.
As has been discussed with the Leafs’ interest, there’s perhaps no better name to satisfy that than Mehta. One of the biggest names in NHL clubs’ early acceptance of advanced analytics in scouting and roster decisions, Mehta’s first full-time job in the NHL came back with the Devils in 2014. After a four-year run in New Jersey during their mid-2010s rebuild, Mehta was picked up by the Panthers as a hockey strategy and intelligence analyst in 2021 before eventually being promoted to AGM under Zito two years later.
Dmitry Kulikov Out For The Season; Panthers Recall Two From AHL
An already long injury list in Florida has gotten even longer. Speaking with reporters following Tuesday’s game against Montreal (video link), Panthers head coach Paul Maurice indicated that defenseman Dmitry Kulikov sustained a broken finger and will not return this season.
Kulikov, who was already playing with a broken nose, returned to the lineup at the beginning of March after missing nearly five months following an upper-body injury sustained in the second game of the season. As a result, Kulikov winds up with just 19 appearances on the 2025-26 campaign. He was held without a point in those outings along with an ATOI of 18:02. The 35-year-old has two years left on his contract with a $1.15MM AAV.
In corresponding moves, Florida has recalled defensemen Mikulas Hovorka and Ludvig Jansson from AHL Charlotte, per the AHL’s transactions log. As a result of these promotions, the Panthers are down to just two contracted blueliners who aren’t on their active roster: prospects Marek Alscher and Evan Nause.
It’s the third recall of the season for Hovorka and the second of the month. The 24-year-old has played in three games with Florida this season, his first taste of NHL action. Hovorka is still looking for his first point at the top level while he has averaged 13:30 per night in his three outings. Meanwhile, he has played in 53 games with the Checkers, recording four goals and 12 assists, besting his 10 points in 60 contests last season.
Jansson, meanwhile, is getting his first promotion. The 22-year-old is in his first season in North America after signing an entry-level deal with Florida last May. So far, Jansson has 10 points in 29 games which is more production than his final two years in Sweden combined. As the injuries continue to pile up, he may get a chance to make his NHL debut over the next few games.